Irene Peel was adamant – she was not going into care.

“Mum always said, ‘I’m not going into a nursing home’,” daughter Liz Flanjak told 9News.

But with house prices skyrocketing, her options were limited.

The solution was a granny flat, just metres from her daughter’s house.

“It’s a win-win for us because she’s close,” Flanjak said.

Pooling resources as a family is becoming increasingly common amid the nation’s housing crisis, according to Shane Windsor from Hoek Modular Homes.

He said the most common request he gets is for two-bedroom granny flats with a kitchen and bathroom.

“They’re combining resources as a family to essentially utilise the land that the family already owns,” Windsor said.

This year, “dual living” is in the top 10 most searched keywords on real estate site Domain.

“Dual living, I think, is something that is on the rise,” Dr Nicole Powell from Domain said.

“For first-time buyers trying to break into the housing market, it is challenging.

“It might be adult children living at home for much longer.”

Developers are also tapping into the dual-living trend with some new duplex designs offering two homes under the one roof, separated by a central dividing wall.

An eight-bedroom build could cost around $1 million, not including the land.

“It’s about people coming into the property market, and with the high cost of living, finding a solution which is more cost-effective,” Chris Thornton from G. J. Gardner Homes said.

There are some things to be mindful of, though, including council regulations and legal implications of pooling financial resources.

“To go too far down the process, without having considered what those rules will be, can be quite a waste of time and money,” Windsor said.